Module Six Reflection

Summary and Reflections of Articles:

#1: Constructivism in Teacher Education: Considerations
for Those Who Would Link Practice to Theory

ERIC Identifier: ED426986
Publication Date: 1998-12-00
Author: Abdal-Haqq, Ismat
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Teaching and Teacher Education Washington DC.

Summary: Abdal-haqq, Ismat argues that "constructivism is an epistemology that offers an explanation of the nature of knowledge and how human being learn." The article states that individuals create their own knowledge through prior knowledge, experiences, events, and activities that have had influence in their lives. I agree with the article in that knowledge is acquired through involvement rather than through a series of repeated events. Knowledge in gained through involving students in different productive activities and not through a repetitive sequence of same old same old events. Furthermore, constructivism is applied in the classroom by problem solving, collaboration, and active engagement with other classmates. The teacher is not giver of information but rather a guide, facilitator, co-explorer "who encourages the learners to question, challenge, and formulate their own ideas". They become independent thinkers and problem solvers. The students and the teacher become the learners and both equality become part of the learning process together. The article states that their are two constructivism approaches to learning; the psychological constructivism and the social constructivism. The psychological constructivism or "Piagetian constructivists" believe that education should support the child's needs and interests. Rather than group interaction the psychological constructivists believe that learning is individualistic. Instruction is practiced through 'discovery learning' and hands on activities which probes students beliefs and encourage debating and testing of those opinions. The social constructivism or "Vygotskian" approach stresses the importance of sociocultural interactions. Instruction is given through cultural and environmental changes both by historical and current changes. This idea focuses on reading, writing, and math and how they are 'cultural tools' that should be utilized as much as possible. The challenges that constructivism presents are the what students value as 'right' answers. Students can interpret a concept many different ways all of which are not completely correct.


#2: Objectivism versus Constructivism; Do We Need a New Philophical Paradigam?
Author: David H. Jonassen

Summary: The idea that learning is equated with behavioral outcomes, behavioral laws (e.g., the work of Skinner) have provided the foundation of technology efforts in Instructional Systems Design (ISD). According to these behavioral laws, learning can be shaped through selective reinforcement.( The idea of 'selective reinforcement' reminded me of how we (as educators) need to pick and choose how often students need to hear our positive verbal praises. If we give the praises to often students will not believe in the positive reinforcement and yet if not given enough the confidence of the students will decrease.) Behaviorists, such as Skinner, were unwilling to acknowledge the existence of covert mental operations or "the act of knowing" because these were not observable. Unlike behaviorists, who are only concerned with what learners "do", cognitive psychologists were interested in what learners "know" and how they come to acquire it. Fodor suggested that cognitive activity was embodied in mental states that enable humans to construct mental representations and manipulate them through the use of symbols.
The article then compares the objectivism and constructivists approaches in the learning process. The constructivist perspective describes learning as a change in meaning constructed from experience. Constructivists believe that knowledge and truth are constructed by people and therefore do not exist outside the human mind. This is radically different from what objectivism conceives learning to be. To the objectivists, knowledge and truth exist outside the mind of the individual and are therefore objective. Learners are told about the world and are expected to replicate its content and structure in their thinking. The role of education in the objectivist view is therefore to help students learn about the real world. It is asserted that there is a particular body of knowledge that needs to be transmitted to a learner. Learning is then viewed as the acquisition and accumulation of a finite set of skills and facts.

#3: Constructivist Research in Educational Technology: A Retrospective View and
Future Prospects
Authors: Inae Kang, Jeong-im Choi, and Kyungwon Chang

Summary: This article focuses on constructivism in Korea. In a country that stresses the importance of traditional educational methods, constructivism presents a dramatic challenge to Korea. Korea leans towards a more 'practical aspects' of teaching while other countries keep a more balanced approach between theory and practice. The main idea of the article is to present issues and trends related to constuctivism in educational technology made manifested over the last decade. The study employed four stages: 1. Problem formulation 2. Literature search, 3. Data evaluation and 4. Analysis and interpretation. The problem formulation examined the constructivist approach in Korean educational technology as compared to other countries. The Literature searched the very few constructivism approaches from representative Korean journals. The Data evaluation categorized, calculated, negotiating , and modified the journal research based on classification. The Analysis and interpretation removed and reduced the information into fewer classifications based on explicit rules. The research on constructivism clearly shows a slow transitional shift into the digital age. The articles predicts that constructivism is complex and unpredictable due to rapid development and changes in human activity. In conclusion, constructivism in Korea is yet to be perceived as a concrete teaching methodology but rather as a philosophy, or learning theory.

#4: The Evolution of Constructivism
Author: Jonathan D. Raskin
Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 21;1-24, 2008
ISSN: 1072-0537

Summary: This article argues that evolutionary theory can help constructivism in the following ways 1. realism 2. congnitivism 3. Relativism 4. dualism and 5. social constructionism. In this article, constructivism refers to personal construct psychology and not social constructionism. The author continues to explain Darwin's evolution theory and how it's compared with Donald Campbell's evolutionary epistemology or the selection theory. Evolution in all its
forms—whether biological, psychological, or social—constitutes a “knowledge process,” which serves to help people effectively make sense of and navigate their surroundings. Campbell believes that learners generate 'intelligence' by trial and error by using their surroundings as a test area. He explains the one's mental representations evolve as people successively experience events. Critiques argue that his ideas run the risk of falling into the 'anything goes' which will devalue science. Constructivists are encouraged to move forward and further explore some of the implications of an evolutionary constructivism. Despite the constructivism views nobody really knows the outcome of their ideas. For example the WWII American women in the workforce. This was a blind variation meaning know body could predict the outcome of this action. Who would have known that in less that 30 years the women's right movement and social constructions about gender roles evolved rapidly. The point that Raskin makes is that biological, psychological, and social systems influence one another over the course of their evolution. Applying the evolutionary theory into constuctivism has potential. Yet know one can predict where this explorations can lead.